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Retina Macbook Pro Triple boot without ReFIT/Refind

There seem to be several methods out there to get triple booting on the Retina Macbook Pro (rMBP). I have not seen this one before, but I may be wrong.

I managed to get Mac OS X, backtrack 5R3 and windows 7 all running off the same SSD by basically using bootcamp to install windows, then disk utility to create a new partition. Then installed linux to this partition and used gdisk (gptfdisk) to make it bootable.

More detailed instructions:
I first used bootcamp in mac os to make a working windows 7 partition.

Following this (using disk utility in mac os) resize the mac partition and create a FAT partition between Mac and win 7 partition.
This will make windows 7 unbootable for now (until you use gptfdisk to fix the mbr)

I then booted backtrack from USB (had some trouble creating a useable USB image, but finally after using the bootcamp installer to put an .iso onto the USB then using unetbootin to download and install Backtrack 5 R1 64bit gnome, it booted fine! I think I added nomodeset to grub to start but it is working fine without it now)

Then using the installer formatted the previously created FAT partition as EXT4 and set as /
Install bootloader to the partition and not the MBR (/sda4) in my case.

I then booted into the mac and downloaded gptfdisk http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/.
Use gdisk to created a new hybrid MBR option r then h in the menu. Select the partitions as listed in the GPT - selected partitions 4 and 5 (Linux and Windows). I set 4 as bootable and it recognized the partition types automatically. Say yes to placing EFI GPT first in partition and no when it asks about unused partition space. Then select w to write the new partition table. (you can use o to check before)

Following this holding down alt brought up the usual 3 hard drive icons (mac os, recovery and windows)
Selecting the windows partition booted to grub and from there you can select linux or windows.

It boots fine to backtrack but no wireless to start - To get initial internet access I used a rt73 USB wifi dongle and updated to backtrack R2.
I managed to get the internal wireless working thanks to instructions here http://www.backtrack-linux.org/wiki/..._Backtrack5_r2.
(I had to use iwconfig to connect as the supplied networking assistant didn't work)

Re: Retina Macbook Pro Triple boot without ReFIT/Refind

Originally Posted by Radialist

There seem to be several methods out there to get triple booting on the Retina Macbook Pro (rMBP). I have not seen this one before, but I may be wrong.

I managed to get Mac OS X, backtrack 5R3 and windows 7 all running off the same SSD by basically using bootcamp to install windows, then disk utility to create a new partition. Then installed linux to this partition and used gdisk (gptfdisk) to make it bootable.

More detailed instructions:
I first used bootcamp in mac os to make a working windows 7 partition.

Following this (using disk utility in mac os) resize the mac partition and create a FAT partition between Mac and win 7 partition.
This will make windows 7 unbootable for now (until you use gptfdisk to fix the mbr)

I then booted backtrack from USB (had some trouble creating a useable USB image, but finally after using the bootcamp installer to put an .iso onto the USB then using unetbootin to download and install Backtrack 5 R1 64bit gnome, it booted fine! I think I added nomodeset to grub to start but it is working fine without it now)

Then using the installer formatted the previously created FAT partition as EXT4 and set as /
Install bootloader to the partition and not the MBR (/sda4) in my case.

I then booted into the mac and downloaded gptfdisk http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/.
Use gdisk to created a new hybrid MBR option r then h in the menu. Select the partitions as listed in the GPT - selected partitions 4 and 5 (Linux and Windows). I set 4 as bootable and it recognized the partition types automatically. Say yes to placing EFI GPT first in partition and no when it asks about unused partition space. Then select w to write the new partition table. (you can use o to check before)

Following this holding down alt brought up the usual 3 hard drive icons (mac os, recovery and windows)
Selecting the windows partition booted to grub and from there you can select linux or windows.

It boots fine to backtrack but no wireless to start - To get initial internet access I used a rt73 USB wifi dongle and updated to backtrack R2.
I managed to get the internal wireless working thanks to instructions here http://www.backtrack-linux.org/wiki/..._Backtrack5_r2.
(I had to use iwconfig to connect as the supplied networking assistant didn't work)

I now just need to get network assistant working and nvidia drivers...

Thanks for the writeup, information on getting the rMBP setup is scarce. Have you even attempted to get the thunderbolt to ethernet adapter working? How does the graphics driver work? Does CUDA work with apps like pyrite etc? I am looking to just dual boot OSX and BackTrack, what path do you recommend I take?

Re: Retina Macbook Pro Triple boot without ReFIT/Refind

Originally Posted by teknikk7

Thanks for the writeup, information on getting the rMBP setup is scarce. Have you even attempted to get the thunderbolt to ethernet adapter working? How does the graphics driver work? Does CUDA work with apps like pyrite etc? I am looking to just dual boot OSX and BackTrack, what path do you recommend I take?

Thanks in advanced!

Others have got the thunderbolt ethernet adapter working by updating the kernel to 3.5. I haven't been successful booting with a newer kernel yet.
The things I am having trouble with are the NVIDIA drivers (so I haven't tried Pyrit yet), audio and USB (which for some strange reason stopped working after I updated to RC2)

Luckliy built in wireless is fine and working with the networking assistant in Gnome. (It defaulted to WLAN1 and I just had to change that in the preferences)

I will persist with trying to get the other stuff working, but if anyone manages before - please let us know!

Re: Retina Macbook Pro Triple boot without ReFIT/Refind

Originally Posted by Radialist

Others have got the thunderbolt ethernet adapter working by updating the kernel to 3.5. I haven't been successful booting with a newer kernel yet.
The things I am having trouble with are the NVIDIA drivers (so I haven't tried Pyrit yet), audio and USB (which for some strange reason stopped working after I updated to RC2)

Luckliy built in wireless is fine and working with the networking assistant in Gnome. (It defaulted to WLAN1 and I just had to change that in the preferences)

I will persist with trying to get the other stuff working, but if anyone manages before - please let us know!

I haven't been able to post for days, these forums have serious issues. Can you shoot me your email so we can chat off forum? I managed to get BT5R1 installed and YES Nvidiva graphics are a bitch to get working. It does not recognize the correct PCIe interface, this is very common with Nvidia Optimus or dual graphics enabled laptops such as ours. Our solution lies with Bumblebee, there are many threads on getting the 650 + Bumblebee working. This is the open source version on Optimus; sort to speak. (http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/05/n...iver/#comments). Anyhow, I am stuck again. I updated to 5R3 and lost wi-fi and USB. I will revert to BT5 R1 and start over.

Re: Retina Macbook Pro Triple boot without ReFIT/Refind

Originally Posted by Radialist

I then booted backtrack from USB (had some trouble creating a useable USB image, but finally after using the bootcamp installer to put an .iso onto the USB then using unetbootin to download and install Backtrack 5 R1 64bit gnome, it booted fine! I think I added nomodeset to grub to start but it is working fine without it now)

Hello,

Could you please develop a bit more how exactly did you create the bootable flash drive with backtrack? I kinda remember that bootcamp installer asks for a windows 7 iso file and it verifies it. Doesn't it?

Re: Retina Macbook Pro Triple boot without ReFIT/Refind

I would also like to know what the USB build process in detail. I attempted to use bootcamp and inetbootin to the USB stick and still get stuck at the initramfs prompt.

I have a 15" retina MacBook Pro, and I cannot boot bt5r3 from neither USB CDROM, USB drive. The cd iso image passed the md5sum check and the burn dvd does boot on 3 other non macs and have tried 2 different brands of DVD and used a slow burn rate just to be sure.

Re: Retina Macbook Pro Triple boot without ReFIT/Refind

Originally Posted by Radialist

...I then booted backtrack from USB (had some trouble creating a useable USB image, but finally after using the bootcamp installer to put an .iso onto the USB then using unetbootin to download and install Backtrack 5 R1 64bit gnome, it booted fine! I think I added nomodeset to grub to start but it is working fine without it now)...

Originally Posted by rhelfter

I would also like to know what the USB build process in detail. I attempted to use bootcamp and inetbootin to the USB stick and still get stuck at the initramfs prompt.

I have a 15" retina MacBook Pro, and I cannot boot bt5r3 from neither USB CDROM, USB drive. The cd iso image passed the md5sum check and the burn dvd does boot on 3 other non macs and have tried 2 different brands of DVD and used a slow burn rate just to be sure.

I am using the 64 bit gnome version of bt5r3.

Same for me. I have a bt5r3 (32bit Gnome) USB2 stick and it boots fine on PCs, but on my rMBP it doesn't work. I can boot without problems, but then I get the error message "BusyBox v1.13.3 (Ubuntu 1:1.13.3-1ubuntu11) built-in shell (ash)", and "(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system"

I believe the problem is that the rMBP has no USB2 port and the USB2/3 port is not supported by Ubuntu directly. Actually I don't even need an installation of BackTrack, I just want to boot it, so this reduces the whole task to simply booting it. How did you get around this problem? Did you use an external CD drive for your initial boot or something?

Re: Retina Macbook Pro Triple boot without ReFIT/Refind

Originally Posted by https

Same for me. I have a bt5r3 (32bit Gnome) USB2 stick and it boots fine on PCs, but on my rMBP it doesn't work. I can boot without problems, but then I get the error message "BusyBox v1.13.3 (Ubuntu 1:1.13.3-1ubuntu11) built-in shell (ash)", and "(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system"

I believe the problem is that the rMBP has no USB2 port and the USB2/3 port is not supported by Ubuntu directly. Actually I don't even need an installation of BackTrack, I just want to boot it, so this reduces the whole task to simply booting it. How did you get around this problem? Did you use an external CD drive for your initial boot or something?

I'm getting the same error. I have the Apple external superdrive, and even that produces the same error since it plugs into the computer via USB (aka USB3.0 issue again). Is there a way to maybe clone a HDD From VMware to a real partition?

While I'm on the topic of VM, I did manage to install BT5 onto a real partition by adding that partition to the VM as an IDE drive and booting the LIVE iso. However, using this method results in a partition on the computer that is only bootable from within VM. It doesn't matter if I use rEFInd for rEFIt to boot into the BT5 partition, they both yield no operating system found errors. So, If there is a way to install BT5 to a virtual hdd in VMware and then clone that virtual HDD to a real partition, that might work.

I've also tried using unetbootin to clone the ISO to a FAT32 partition on the HDD, but that wasn't bootable either. I got the same missing operating system error, even when booting from rEFInd or rEFIt.

Does anyone know if the BT5 live OS can mount external drives that are plugged into the machine via firewire? I do have another Mac here, so i was just thinking that starting up that computer on the BT5 live USB and then starting the rMBP into target disk mode could possibly be a way to gain access to the rMBP's internal HDD from within BT5. That should then be able to install BT5 on the computer.

I've also tried installing BT5 on another MBP (non-retina) and then using the dd command from within terminal to clone that partition bit by bit to the rMBP, but that totally did not work. There were errors with superblocks on the cloned partition. It may be because the partition was not the exact same block size as the installed BT5's partition, but even after fsck-ing that partition from within ubuntu's boot-repair iso (which does mount correctly on the rMBP).

Re: Retina Macbook Pro Triple boot without ReFIT/Refind

Originally Posted by slaute

Hello,

Could you please develop a bit more how exactly did you create the bootable flash drive with backtrack? I kinda remember that bootcamp installer asks for a windows 7 iso file and it verifies it. Doesn't it?

Thanks

Sorry for taking so long to reply but I have not been around the last few months.

To make a bootable USB stick, use the bootcamp installer to create a USB stick with windows installer. Next use unetbootin to install BACKTRACK Gnome R1 to the same stick. I am not entirely sure why you have to use bootcamp first but it won't work any other way.